


something just like this

by closingdoors



Series: Pepperony Week 2018 [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Pepper Potts as Rescue, Pepperony Week, Pepperony week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-23 00:38:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15594375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closingdoors/pseuds/closingdoors
Summary: “I’m afraid that is against this suit’s protocols, Miss Potts,” JARVIS informs her. “This suit is designed to defend and escort you away from danger.”or, prompt two: rescue!pepper





	something just like this

**Author's Note:**

> This one is more dialogue heavy than I'd like. It takes place during Avengers: Assemble and diverges from canon. Title taken from the song by Coldplay.
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoy.

****The suit, red and silver, follows beside her flight to D.C.

Pepper kicks her shoes off with a sigh when she gets to her hotel. The suit stands by her door and sets itself into surveillance mode, which she’s recognised from suits Tony’s trialled at home.

Tony picks up after one ring.

“Hey.”

“Would you care to explain?” She asks, setting her phone on loudspeaker as she undresses.

“I haven’t the slightest idea what you mean,” he replies, and she can hear his grin on the other end of the phone.

Pepper plumps her pillows. “You know, my security team thought it was a terrorist attack when they first spotted it on the radar.”

“Give them a raise.”

“And I had to tip the concierge extra to let me bring it into my room.”

“Do I hear _demotion?_ ”

“ _Tony_.”

Pepper slips into her pyjamas and onto the bed. She hears the rustling of paper on his end.

“Is everything okay?” She asks anxiously.

“Yeah. Hey, how about some phone sex?”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“Chills. I’m telling you.”

Pepper picks at the thread of her pyjamas. She glances at the suit standing watch by her doorway. This isn’t where she’d thought she’d end up, but she has to admit that she feels a little safer - and as much as Tony is over the top, she appreciated the effort.

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for the suit.”

She wishes she could see him. She should’ve video called him. Pepper rests her head back against the headboard and stares up at the ceiling, hating that she has to be away from him, that SHIELD have pulled him in after rejecting him, while proud of what he’s become. She feels it, warm and gentle, in her chest. Pride.

“Promise me you’ll use it. If you need to.”

“What’s happening, Tony?” She murmurs. She takes the phone off of loudspeaker and cradles it against her ear. “Why have they called you back in? Why have you sent me a suit?”

Tony’s quiet. She checks that the phone line is still connected. It is. There’s a shuffle of papers again before she speaks.

“It’ll be okay. Trouble might be coming. But I’m prepared.”

“Please be careful,” she says, hating how needy the words are, meaning them all the same.

“I promise.”

Pepper dims the lights in her hotel room. Light blue emits from the eye slits of the suit, keeping watch.

“Pepper?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Pepper sighs. “I love you too.”

Tony makes a small, happy sound on the other end. She smiles tiredly.

“Get some sleep,” he says.

“And you.”

“Can’t. I’m about to become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics.”

“Then eat something, at least.”

“I will.”

Pepper slides beneath the covers. The bed is wide and empty without him hogging up all the space. Knowing him has changed everything.

“Stay safe,” she murmurs.

“You too,” he replies.

 

 

*

 

 

When the attack on New York happens, she gets an alert on her phone. A simple notification. An emergency alert from the government to stay away from New York City.

Pepper leaves the meeting she’s in the middle of. Suddenly, getting press coverage on clean energy doesn’t matter anymore. She marches straight back up to her hotel room and when she turns the television on, she can’t believe what she’s seeing. It’s - it can’t be real.

Tony doesn’t answer when she calls. He doesn’t answer the first time. The second time. The seventh. The thirteenth. She paces her hotel room for half an hour before she glances over the armour that has been following her around all day. It’d taken her almost ten minutes to convince the press team earlier that the suit was not, in fact, Tony, but controlled by JARVIS to follow and protect her. As embarrassing as _that_ had been to admit.

Pepper switches her heels for flats, and she stands in front of the suit.

“JARVIS?”

The suit opens for her instantly. Pepper turns, stepping backwards, and allows the metal to close around her body. It’s uncomfortable at first, almost claustrophobic, and then blue light appears, and a voice surrounds her.

“I’m here, Miss Potts.”

“Contact Tony,” she orders instantly.

“I’m afraid that Mr Stark is out of range.”

“Then get me in range.”

“I’m afraid that is against this suit’s protocols, Miss Potts,” JARVIS informs her. “This suit is designed to defend and escort you away from danger.”

“User override. Virginia Potts.”

There’s quiet, the interface before her flickers, and then  -

“Yes, Miss Potts.”

“Take me to New York.”

“As you wish, Miss Potts.”

It’s clunky, walking to the balcony in the suit, and she feels her leg muscles straining with the effort. She’s already beginning to wonder how Tony can stand to do this.

“You may want to prepare yourself,” JARVIS advises her.

Pepper nods, sets her jaw, and feels every muscle in her body tighten when the jets in the boots start up. JARVIS pilots her slowly at first, rising from one of the top floors up into the sky. She makes sure not to look down. She trusts that Tony would take every precaution when building her a suit, but she’s still not ready for the nausea that comes with being so high up.

The closer she gets to New York, the more anxious she grows. Because what if - what if she gets there, and he’s…

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, Miss Potts?”

“What’s happening in New York?”

“There have been no official reports, but from my analysis of news footage I would suggest it is an extraterrestrial attack.”

 _“Aliens?_ ”

“Yes, Miss Potts.”

Pepper swallows.

“Can this thing go any faster?”

 

 

*

 

 

The first thing she thinks is: _He can’t have survived this._

The second thing she thinks is: _He can survive anything._

When Pepper flies into the city, she’s overwhelmed immediately. As she tries to absorb what she’s seeing, the suit comms flicker to life, attuning to the Avengers’ frequency instantly. Voices she doesn’t know, except Natasha, exchanging fighting tactics.

“JARVIS, hand over control of the suit to me.”

“As you wish.”

The flight is immediately less stable, and Pepper has to swallow past her nausea as she lowers herself from the clouds and into the fray. There’re massive alien ships ploughing into the sides of skyscrapers. Pepper spots one man clinging to the edge of what must once have been the thirtieth-floor, his legs dangling uselessly in the air. She foregoes her instinct to _avoid_ danger and plummets, her stomach filling with butterflies.

“JARVIS, does this suit have strength?”

“Like Mr Stark’s suit, it does have added strength.”

Pepper reaches the man, who immediately begins blabbering and thanking Iron Man. She shuts off the jets of the hands to grab him, before guiding him down to the ground. She drops him a little clumsily, still a foot off of the floor, but he doesn’t seem to mind.

As she does, she feels a vibration against her back, and she’s thrust forward a couple feet.

“It also possesses beta force fields.”

Pepper glances over her shoulder. There’s an alien following after her on some sort of floating motorcycle, aiming at her.

“Good to know.”

Pepper loses him after ducking and weaving for three blocks, still adjusting to flight and unwilling to test out any weapons yet. Obadiah Stane’s blood is still on her hands, and as little as she mentions it to Tony, the thought does make her stomach churn sometimes. Though these invaders aren’t human, and she certainly doesn’t have the same level of attachment, she doesn’t want that feeling again unless absolutely necessary.

“Have you located Tony, JARVIS?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Potts. There are signals interfering from the Chitauri ships. It may take a moment.”

Pepper glances further down the street and on the interface, one man is circled. She knows the uniform - who doesn’t? - so when the name _CAPTAIN AMERICA_ appears she isn’t surprised.

Pepper lands ten feet from him, clunkily and loud. He’s being supported by another man, taller, with long blonde hair and a hammer in his hand. The interface identifies this man as _THOR._

Captain America is cradling his side. He frowns when she lands.

“You changed suits?”

Pepper lifts the mask. Captain America and Thor both frown.

“Where is Stark?” Thor asks, his grip on his hammer tightening.

“That’s what I was going to ask,” she returns.

“I didn’t know Stark allowed others to use his suits,” Captain America says, leaning down to grab his shield.

Pepper takes a step back.

“Are you working for Loki?” Thor demands, taking a step towards her.

“Pep. Is that you?” She hears over the comms.

Thor and Captain America both stop. Pepper finds herself laughing from both stress and relief.

“Tony,” she sighs.

“Stark,” the captain says, a finger to his ear, “you know her?”

“Uh, yeah, she’s with me. Stand down, or I’ll kick alien ass and then yours,” Tony says over the comms. “Pepper, you need to leave. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“This place is _dangerous -_ “

“I can help you - “

“The suit wasn’t designed for combat - “

“I don’t care - “

“I do - “

“I won’t let you risk your life alone, Tony - “

“Did you miss Captain Patriotism and Shakespeare just now?”

“That’s not what I mean - “

“I can’t have you in harm’s way - “

“Now really isn’t the time for you to try and tell _me_ what to do - “

Thor and Captain America exchange a glance, but the next voice through the comms isn’t Tony’s. She recognises it as Natasha’s:  _I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down._

“Do it!”

“No, wait.”

“Stark, these things are still coming.”

“I got a nuke coming in. It’s gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it.”

Pepper gasps, the mask of the suit lowering. It hides her face from the others, and not for the first time she's surprised by JARVIS's capability to understand human emotion.

“Stark,” Captain America says quietly, “you know that’s a one-way trip.”

“Tony,” she murmurs, even quieter.

“I’m sorry, Pep."

She closes her eyes. The ground beneath her feels like it’s starting to sway. She knows the only thing holding her upright is the suit.

“Don’t,” she grits out.

“I can’t let it kill innocent civilians,” he replies. “You know I can’t.”

“I can’t let you die,” she whispers.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats.

She curls her hands into fists, feels the iron bend around her fingers.

Pepper opens her eyes. There, she can see, a small speck from her view on the ground, something flying up against the light of the portal. Her chest squeezes uncomfortably.

An alien - Chitauri, she remembers JARVIS referring to them as - climbs over an upended cab. Before Captain America or Thor can react, she lifts both of her hands. Instead of the familiar powering-up sound of arc reactor technology, there’s just silence, and then a red laser emits from her palm. It burns a solid, thick hole through the aliens chest, and it drops to the ground. Both of the Avengers stare at her, wide eyed, but she feels nothing.

“Pep?”

Her voice is hoarse. “Yes?”

“I was thinking,” he says, and she looks up, sees him almost there, and nausea waves over her frame, “you should move in.”

“Okay. Okay, I’ll move in.”

“You practically live at the Malibu house anyway. We should make it official. Right?”

“Right.”

“And I’ll - I’ll make you another suit. Something more powerful. I’ve gotta keep you safe.”

“I have to keep you safe, too.”

She hears him laugh on the other end.

“You keep me sane.”

“It’s a hard job.”

“Oh, I bet.”

“I should really give myself a bonus.”

“A twelve percent bonus?”

“Don’t push it.”

There are tears rolling down her cheeks now, thick and heavy, but she fights to keep them out of her voice. She doesn’t want to remember him with tears in her eyes. And, god - what a horrible thought. That she’s already compartmentalising. Already thinking of him in the past tense. What an awful, horrible thing to do.

“You know,” he almost whispers, maybe ten feet from the portal, “it’s tradition to get married before living together. So maybe someday, when you’re ready, I  - “

She watches him disappear, and his words go with him.

 

 

*

 

 

Pepper doesn’t remember much about the forty seconds that follow Tony flying into the portal.

She’s shrouded by grief. She knows JARVIS tries to say something comforting, which is both odd and completely in character for the A.I. Captain America says something too, it floats through the comms, and there’s a hand large and heavy on her shoulder that she thinks might be Thor’s. But the specifics of it are lost on her.

The tears stop. She feels - she feels nothing. There should be blinding rage, devastating sadness, but there’s just nothing. Like someone’s switched her mind off.

The suit around her is a cocoon. Pepper’s body melts, ready to fall to her knees and give into the numbness tingling down the spine. She feels JARVIS take control, still following the suit’s protocol to keep her safe, and keeps her upright. Even in death, Tony’s still looking after her.

“Son of a gun.”

Pepper looks up, and she hardly dares believe it. She can see him. Falling.

“He’s not slowing down.”

She’s flying before she can register what she’s doing. Faster than before. Her eyes struggle to keep up, to digest the world around her. There’s nothing but Tony. Tony, falling. Tony, spinning. And then -

Tony, in her arms.

Her suit drops a few feet from the impact. She cradles him to her like a child.

“Tony?”

Nothing.

“Tony, can you hear me?”

Nothing.

Pepper flies him to the ground. She lays him against the tarmac, one armored hand over his arc reactor. It’s still glowing. The other Avengers bow their heads.

“JARVIS?”

“I can detect a pulse, Miss Potts.”

Pepper lets out a sound that she cannot name.

“Release me.”

JARVIS does as he’s asked. Pepper clambers out of the suit, kneeling by his body. The tarmac is hard against her knees through her pantsuit but she ignores it.

“Tony,” she pleads. She shakes him. _“Tony.”_

In the end, it isn’t her who brings him back. The Hulk, who she hadn’t seen before then, makes her jump when he roars. But then Tony jerks back to life, gasping, eyes wide, and her hands clutch his cheeks fiercely,

“Don’t _ever_ ,” she grits out, “do that again.”

Tony’s head rests back against the ground. He laughs weakly, but his hand rises, the suit falling away so that it’s his bare palm against her cheek. It grounds her. She allows herself to breathe.

“I promise.”


End file.
